White Blood: Story Time
by Lycoson
Summary: Sora No Woto/Blue Drop crossover moment.  After dinner in the fortress, Felicia tells the story of the war with "Them."  Noel is more than she appears.  Oneshot.


The sun was sinking behind the verdant hills of Helvetia. In town, Shopkeepers were closing up their shops. The lamplighters were out, lighting the gas lanterns for the evening. Parents were ushering their children inside for the night, some sending older children to case after younger ones.

At the fortress, the Fortress Maidens were sharing dinner. Felicia had opened a bottle of Calvados for cooking, and the five of them were finishing the rest. Every one of them had eaten well, leaving nothing on their plates untouched.

Rio pushed her empty plate away from her. "That was a good dinner.

Kureha nodded. "Using Calvados to cook always makes the food taste really good, but this was even better!"

Felicia smiled. "I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it looks like I did okay!"

Kanata finished her plate as well. "Hey, Felicia, will you tell us a story?"

"Yeah," Kureha added, "Please!"

The tall blonde girl smiled. "Sure. What kind of story do you want?"

"Anything is fine," Kanata said

"The legend of the shrine maidens again?" Felicia asked.

Kanata shook her head. "No, I've heard that one already."

"What about a story from the Helvetian bible?"

"Too boring," Kureha said.

"How about a local fairytale then?"

"We're not six years old!"

"How should I know what kind of story to tell if you won't tell me what kind you want to hear?"

There was suddenly a sharp cry. Noel had fallen asleep while holding one of the steak knives and it had cut her finger. Rio was up and at Noel's side in a moment. Kanata stared as white liquid dripped from the wound.

"Don't just stand there," Kureha snapped, "Go get a bandage for her."

"Oh-Right!" Kanata ran to grab the first-aid kit. Bringing it back, she helped Rio wrap a bandage around Noel's finger.

Kanata settled down in her chair again. "Hey Noel, why do you have white blood?"

"A lot of my family has white blood. At least, my mother did, and her mother did too."

"That's it!" Felicia exclaimed, "That's what I'll tell you!"

Kanata leaned forward toward Felicia. "What?"

"I'll tell you about the war with Them, and how our world became the way it is."

Kanata looked puzzled. "How did you get that from me asking about Noel's white blood?"

Felicia smiled at her. "You'll have to hear the story to find out."

"Now you've got me interested," Kureha said, leaning closer to Felicia as well. Noel sat up straighter, indicating that she too wanted to hear the story.

"In the beginning," Felicia began, "Mankind ruled over all of the world. In those times the world was still mostly all green and beautiful. Perhaps it was not all as beautiful as Helvetia, but it had places where trees grew hundreds of feet tall, and so thick that the ground beneath them seemed to be eternally twilit. The oceans, the land and the sky all teemed with life of all sorts, in all shapes and sizes. Towering far above them all were Mankind's shining cities. It was the height of mankind's civilization, when people could talk to someone on the other side of the entire world without leaving their own home.

"Then _They_ came. No one is quite sure where they came from originally, only that it was another world somewhere out among the stars. They called themselves the Arume. In many ways they looked like us, though they had pale skin, hair as white as snow, beautiful luminous blue eyes and white blood. One more thing; among them there was not a single man.

"Mankind fought against the Arume. They fought well and bravely, but the Arume had brought with them things from their own world. They had powerful weapons, enormous flying ships, and shape shifting monsters which did their bidding. In the end, Mankind was defeated, and the Arume took up rule of the world for a long time.

"Life wasn't horrible under the Arume, but mankind wanted its world back. After a very long time, this feeling grew so strong that mankind rebelled. It was not content to be ruled by someone else, and there were even some Arume who had befriended humans and were sympathetic. They were the ones that supported mankind, and without their help mankind might not have been able to win.

"They fought a long and bloody war against the Arume. There were fewer of them than had fought in the first war, but they had the help of those Arume who sided with them and they now had some of the things that the Arume had brought. The fighting went on for years, laying waste to most of the world. Eventually, however, the Arume left. Mankind had rule of its own world once again. However, the world would never again be as green as it had been in the time before."

Felicia's voice was almost a whisper now. All three girls had leaned in close.

"And what happened to the Arume that had helped Mankind? Some of them left with their people, going back to their own world somewhere among the stars, but not all of them. Some of them still loved this world and the humans they had met, and did not want to say goodbye to either of them. They lived among mankind for the rest of their lives. Some say that they even had children with humans, and that there are still descendants of the Arume amongst us. These children may be known because they look a little like the Arume did; maybe they have white hair, maybe they have blue or violet eyes. Maybe their skin is very pale, or they have white blood. Maybe they're better than anyone else at understanding all of the old technology; that which had been made by the Arume and later by humans using their technology. No one knows where exactly they can be found, but people say that they're still out there among us."

There was a long silence after the end of the story. The only things which could be heard were the crickets outside, the ticking of the clock and the owl ruffling its feathers. Finally, Kureha broke the silence.

"Is that true?"

Felicia smiled. "Sure it is!"

"It sounds like a myth to me."

"It's the way my mother always told the story to me."

"Well I don't buy it."

"it's exactly how it happened, isn't it Rio"

"Ah…Wha…Don't drag me into this!" Rio sputtered.

Noel fell asleep again, her head hitting the table.

That night Kanata had a dream. She was standing in the middle of a field, watching flying, glowing ships leaving into the starlit sky. The ships all shrank smaller and smaller until they were no bigger than stars themselves. One ship, however, grew larger and larger until it seemed that Kanata could reach out and touch it if she wanted to. It landed next to her. A hatch opened and a girl with white hair and luminous eyes walked out. It was hard to tell because it was so dark, but to Kanata the girl looked a lot like Noel.


End file.
